The First President Lincoln

Anyone see any way that Levi Lincoln, Sr., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levi_Lincoln,_Sr. could become President of the United States? (And yes, he and Abraham Lincoln were related--distantly. See https://books.google.com/books?id=G0RBAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA136)

An obvious problem is that in that from 1800 until 1824 it seemed that only Virginians need apply. Still, if he had been named as Madison's running mate in 1812, it does seem that by 1816 there was some dissatisfaction with the Virginia Dynasty which could theoretically have given Lincoln a chance for the top post: William Crawford (a Georgian, though Virginia-born), got 54 votes to Monroe's 65 in the Republican Congressional caucus, even though Crawford said that he did not want the nomination. But Lincoln seems to have lost interest in politics after 1809, when he failed to be elected Governor of Massachusetts (he had been Lieutenant Governor in 1807-8 and had become Acting Governor on Governor James Sullivan's death but in 1809 the Federalists were just too strong in Massachusetts, and their candidate, Christopher Gore, was elected). In 1811 he declined an appointment to the US Supreme Court due to failing eyesight--let'a assume that it's better in this ATL.

Perhaps if George Clinton had died in 1808, Lincoln could have been nominated and elected as Vice President then--to strengthen the Republicans in their weakest region, New England--and presumably he would have kept the position in 1812 and been at least a plausible candidate for the anti-Virginians in 1816. I realize that after the Twelfth Amendment was passed, the Vice Presidency was not ordinarily the path to a presidential nomination, but that does not mean that a vice-president could not be seriously considered, as George Clinton would have been in 1808 if he had been younger and more physically and mentally vigorous, or as John C. Calhoun could have been if Jackson had died between 1824 and 1828, or as Martin Van Buren was to be in 1836.

For an example of Lincoln's political shrewdness in looking out for Republican interests in New England, see http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9806/danbury.html on Jefferson's famous "wall of separation" letter to the Danbury Baptists. Originally, Jefferson wanted to go so far as to disparage proclamations of fasts and thanksgivings, but

"When Levi Lincoln, a cooler head, saw the letter the next day, he immediately perceived that, as written, it could hurt Jefferson politically among the growing number of Republicans in New England. People there, Lincoln warned Jefferson, 'have always been in the habit of observing fasts and thanksgivings in performance of proclamations from their respective Executives.' To disparage this custom with an 'implied censure' by representing it as a tainted, Tory ceremony could be politically disastrous, however well the slur might play south of the Hudson River...

"Jefferson heeded Lincoln's advice, with the result that he deleted the entire section about thanksgivings and fasts in the Danbury draft, noting in the left margin that the 'paragraph was omitted on the suggestion that it might give uneasiness to some of our republican friends in the eastern states where the proclamation of thanksgivings etc. by their Executives is an antient habit & is respected.' Removed in the process of revision was the designation of the president's duties as 'merely temporal'; 'eternal' was dropped as a modifier of 'wall.' Jefferson apparently made these changes because he thought the original phrases would sound too antireligious to pious New England ears."

In spite of that, Federalists never stopped claiming that Lincoln, like all Democratic-Republicans or "Jacobins," was an atheist. A Federalist parody of the pro-Jefferson song "Jefferson and Liberty" even, for some reason, singles Attorney-General Lincoln out along with Jefferson himself:

All bigot chains our chief unties,
For Devil nor for God to care:
Or if variety we prize,
Has twenty Gods [1] or more to spare,
Rejoice, ye Infidels, rejoice,
From law and conscience quite set free,
And curse the Priests with Lincoln's voice,
For J-------N and Liberty.
(Quoted in Dumas Malone, *Jefferson the President: First Term, 1801-1805*, p. 205)

[1] A reference to Jefferson's famous (Federalists would say "infamous") statement in *Notes on Virginia* that "it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/amendI_religions40.html
 
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If he wasn't doomed to die in 1820, at the age of 701, i would say that he could do 1824.

I mean, essentially, Monroe having a Massachusetts person as VP would be more symbolic to the New Englander's - unfortunately this makes Adams unable to be Secretary of State - and most likely makes that Clay's position.

But as i said, Lincoln is 70 in 1820 and is dead. Sure, 74 in 1824 if he somehow lives, and Reagan was 70-79 in the 80s so it is kinda possible for someone of that age to be President...But it depends on butterflies.
 
When I read the title, I thought it was about getting Benjamin Lincoln elected President. He did receive a single electoral vote in the first Presidential election. I assume him and the two Levi Lincoln's weren't related? Wikipedia notes him and Abe weren't at least (down in the Legacy section).

Anyways, on topic, I see two ways:

1.) Madison, for whatever reason, declines to take the appointment of Sec of State. Maybe he's sick, maybe he'd just not interested, maybe he takes another offer like Court Justice, maybe he becomes Speaker. Whatever. So the New Englander Levi Lincoln is offered the office instead and hopes over to it full time. Come 1808, he's tapped for POTUS by the caucus.

2.) The War of 1812 is delayed a little bit and Madison/King Caucus, not confident New England will fight Britain with another Virginian in the White House, desperately look for a New England man who can place the Northeast. Eventually Lincoln is dragged into it and he wins. Whether the war proceeds on OTL is another question entirely.
 
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